That’s a wrap for 2022.
It was a pretty good year. I read more than last year, though maybe not as much as I wanted. I wrote more than last year, too, though not nearly as much as I wanted. My weekly blog streak is still going, which I feel is a big accomplishment.
I feel like I should set goals for 2023, though I’m not necessarily great at meeting them. And that failure to meet the goals that I set tends to be pretty emotionally taxing, which is no fun at all. It heavily reinforces the whole imposter syndrome thing I’ve had going ever since I published my first book.
But without goals, how do I know where I’m going? How do I know if I’m making progress?
I probably won’t publish anything about my goals here. I did it for a while and it started feeling like I was just pushing buttons, not really accomplishing anything useful with those posts. It would be nice if I had enough wall space to put up a bulletin board or something. I like all of the windows in the sunroom where my desk is, but some usable wall space would be helpful. I’d put my goals list up on the bulletin board so I could see it every day.
Digging In
Thursday, Third Son and Middle Son and I got the trenching done for some electrical conduit we’re running. We dug about 160 total feet between the two runs. The front trench will go to the old utility pole so I don’t have to run an extension cord every year for Christmas lights. The one in the back yard will be there for whatever swimming pool we end up using.
I’d called the 811 state utility locator service as one is supposed to do, but it turns out that they won’t necessarily mark service lines; they usually only mark the mains. But I needed my water line marked since I knew it went across the parking area. The Rural Water District plant manager came out to check on our curb box for some unrelated damage, and said he’d be able to eyeball the service. He also witched it.
Turns out he was off by about twenty feet.
Along the way, we also cut the old ATT phone line, which we knew we would, and which I didn’t care about, because we don’t have landline service. But we also cut another unmarked line about ten feet away from the marked ATT line. I suspect that may have been for ATT internet, but don’t really know. Curiously, the ATT locate done by USIC was off by about two feet.
More interesting is the water line we cut in the back yard. I didn’t have any locating done back there because I had no reason to suspect any lines of any kind. But there it was, about forty feet from the house, running almost due north-south, and we’ve got no clue where either end could be.
But the trenches are dug, and I’ll get the electrical work done in January after the College Football Playoffs.
Football
Speaking of the Playoffs…
Yeah, it wasn’t a great day for me. Michigan lost to 12-1 TCU 51-45. My mood swings throughout the game were just ridiculous. Edward’s opening 54-yard run, then we couldn’t close the deal. A 41-yard pick-six. Roman Wilson’s 50-yard reception followed by a fumble. Another pick-six. It looked a little like we made adjustments at halftime, but TCU does and made great adjustments, too. Michigan just never got their rhythm established, and TCU played their hearts out.
I’m still on the fence about Wilson’s reception being called back, but when you get to the point of arguing about calls, you’ve already lost. I do think the no-call on Michigan’s last possession was wrong. Even the ESPN guys in the booth thought it was targeting. But with 25 seconds left on our own 25, I don’t know that calling the targeting penalty would have made much of a difference in the outcome.
I really wish we could have seen McCarthy run it more, too.
Such is football.
We had a helluva season. 13-1 is nothing to sneeze at, especially with a second consecutive win against tO$U.
Writing
Storyworth continues to challenge me emotionally. There are several questions about faith coming up, like “Do you believe in a higher power,” or “How is your faith different from your parent’s faith.” Those should be interesting to answer, in part because faith and religion weren’t really something we talked about when I was younger. The bigger issue is my deconstruction and deconversion over the years. I’ve never really gone into detail with the kids about my journey, though I’ve written quite a bit here and there.
“Has your relationship with your siblings changed over the years?” will be a fun one to do, though I’m probably working myself up for no real reason. I have, at one level, accepted the facts that Hal is basically done with me, and that we’ll never have the relationship our dad had with his brother. I’ll still always wonder why though.
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